BETTY

Hello, my name is Betty, Betty Grof. I am Simon Petrikov's fiancé... ex-fiancé. We were living happily until one day, he brought back a golden crown adorned dazzling red jewels from his antiquarian trips. It was a really beautiful crown but I had a strange feeling with it. I ignored my hunch and watched Simon as he put the crown on his head. I regretted not following my hunch. It turned out to be correct. The crown had dark magic in it and it turned messed with Simon's sanity. He paused for a second with his mouth wide open. Suddenly, he started to shoot lightning bolts made out of ice out of his hands. I threw a snow ball at his eyes and escaped...

The snowball attack was a smart move but it didn't give me a lot of time. I thought he saw me but I was wrong. I forgot about Simon's poor eye sight. I quickly hid behind a wall. I was confused. Everything moved too fast my mind couldn't catch up. Out of the blue, a doll-shaped portal appeared in front of me and there I saw Simon. He looked normal like the Simon I used to know. He told me he was from the future and he told me that he wanted to say sorry. It took me a few seconds to understand and when I did, time was running up, fast. I jumped in the portal and towards Simon. There are some things that I don't want to talk about... Hello, my name is Betty, Betty Grof, and this is the story of my crazy life...

Living in a strange world was hard to get used to. It looked as it's been designed by little kids. There were rainbow unicorns, talking animals, dragons and vampires. I felt like I'm living in a child's toy box. There was a high risk of me dying... I think. I saw a store in the distance, it must have a notebook. I used the magic carpet I found to float to it and I entered it. It was full of creatures. I looked around for a notebook and found a heart-shaped one. It was pink and smelled like candy. The smell made me hungry so I looked for a candy bar or something. I completely forgot about having to pay. I didn't have any future money and I bet future creatures won't accept past money. I didn't want to steal but I'll die if I don't get something to eat. I sighed and put the snack bars and the notebook where I found it. I walked out of the store with my stomach grumbling.

I wandered around Ooo on my carpet to a colourful kingdom. It looked like it was made of sweets. Coloured sugar grass, houses made by hard-boiled candy. It looked edible. I started to drool. The kingdom was a sugar-addict's dream... I'm a sugar addict. I wanted to eat neither the floor nor the houses so there was one last option for me... the trash. I walked to the nearest trash can I could find and when I did, it was occupied. There was a dog and a boy with a funny-looking hat eating the trash. I realised that it was the people I saw with Simon yesterday. The boy saw me in the corner of his eye and walked towards me. He put his hand out and smiled. So did the dog.
"Hi there! I'm Finn." Finn introduced himself shaking my hand.
"And I'm Jake, Finn's brother." Jake said.
"When can a human have a dog as a brother?" I asked the two.

Finn and Jake exchanged confused glances. Jake shrugged wearing a nervous smile on his face. Finn laughed weirdly. The two started to talk at the same time making it hard for me to understand what they were saying. They stopped talking and there was a long and awkward silence between us. "A-A-Are you a-a-a h-human?" Finn asked breaking the silence.

I nodded my head confused why he was asking that question. I remembered that I was in a not-really-a-dystopian future. Finn acted as if he had just won a lottery, cheering and squealing. "You're from the past right? I have so many questions to ask you!" Finn said, "It could be hundreds, thousands or even millions!"
"Millions?!" I gasped, "Look, Fred or whatever your name is, I don't have time. I need to find a loophole so that Simon could be Simon again."

A frown grew on Finn's face. He let out a depressed sigh. "Well, if you EVER need any help, we'll be in the treehouse." Finn said. I can't stand seeing sad kids... I meant teens or whatever age is he now. It made me crack. "Well, it won't hurt if I spend some time with you right?" I said.

Finn smiled and started punching the air. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me to his treehouse. I'm so glad he didn't grab my hand. Later, we reached the treehouse. Finn showed me his living video game console, his fridge and everything else in his tree house. The only things I got interested in were his collection of swords and his photo album. "Could you show me more of your photo album?" I asked Finn.

He nodded his head and opened the album. There were tons of photos in it. Every photo that has Simon in it saddened me. I wish I arrived in Ooo sooner so I could take care of Simon and even save him faster... "Hey, Betty. How did humans live in your time?" Finn asked me.

I took out my wallet and took out some money. I explained the boy how we lived in the past. Then, I noticed that tears were raining down his face. "What's wrong? You're crying." I asked him.
"What? Oh, it's nothing. I'm just happy that I'm not the only human." Finn answered.
"So where's your real parents?"
"I...I...I don't know... I think they died before I had a chance to meet them."
"Sorry I asked."

Finn wiped his tears away. I suddenly had an urge to hug him. I failed to keep it in and hugged him. He hugged me back crying. "Can you be my mom?" Finn asked.
"Wha?!" I cried.
"Just joking."

I heaved a sigh and patted his head. "Why do you wear this hat?" I asked him pulling his hat off."
"It's not the original one. The real one grew legs and walked away. I was already wearing it when my adoptive parents found me so it's the only remembrance of my real parents." Finn answered.

I stared at Finn's hair. The colour reminded me of a friend I made in collage. He had blonde hair, pale skin, nice smile and charming. That's it! I remember him but I forgot his name. I remember hearing that he married a woman. I didn't dare to tell Finn. It'll just make him cry again. "How did humans look like?" Finn asked.
"Do you have any paper?" I asked him.

He stood up and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and gave it to me. I started drawing a human on the piece of paper and showed him. "Woah! You're good at drawing!" Finn complimented.
"Well, humans have special talents. It could be drawing, mathematics, science, playing a musical instrument, singing and more!" I explained.
"Hm... Marceline is singing and playing musical instruments, PB is science and mathematics, Jake is playing musical instruments and for me... Fighting!"
"Who's Marceline and PB? Is one of them you're girlfriend, fiancée or wife?"
"N-N-No!"

Finn blushed. I laughed and slapped his back. Suddenly, the door swung open. A girl floated inside and to Finn. When she caught sight of me, she hugged me saying, "Aunt Betty!" I had to say, I was confused. Something tells me that she's Simon's friend. "That's Marceline." Finn said.

I pushed Marceline away when I saw fangs. "Vampire! Don't suck my blood, please!" I begged.
"Hey, I may be a vampire but I don't drink blood. I drink shades of red. You're acting the same way Finn acted when he met me." Marceline explained.

That's a relief. Marceline giggled and flew to Finn. She whispered something to his ear. "I know it's exciting, Marceline." Finn said.

Marceline's face turned bright red and slapped Finn leaving a red, hand-shaped mark on Finn's face. I had a confused face on. I completely had no idea what she said and why she slapped him. Finn and Marceline started arguing. "Um... You go ahead and solve your problems I'll be going now." I said.
"NO!" Both of them yelled.

Both of them sighed and walked towards me. It's starting to get creepy, they were doing the same things at the exact same time. "Uh... You two are creeping me out!" I said.
"Huh? Oh my Glob! I'm sorry." Marceline apologised.
"I'm sorry!" Finn apologised.
"Um... Marceline, why do you call me Aunt Betty?" I asked the vampire.
"I treat Simon as my uncle an since you're his fiancée, I should treat you like my aunt!" Marceline answered.

That made sense except for the fiancée thing. I looked around for something to do and remembered Finn's collection of swords. I'm handy with weapons but I don't think I can handle swords. "Do you have guns?" I asked Finn.
"Nah... But PB does! She has those 'sciency' guns that are super cool!" Finn answered.
"Take me to PB."

We travelled to PB's castle which was in the same kingdom I was in just now. Oh yeah, Marceline tagged along. I was imagining PB to be a living book or calculator or something but she turned out to be a piece of living bubble gum. "Greetings, Finn. Looks like you brought a guest here. What's your name?" PB greeted.
"I'm Betty, Betty Grof." I introduced myself.
"Um, hello? I'm also here, Bonnibel." Marceline said.
"Stop asking for attention, Marcy." PB said.

Marceline folded her arms and stuck her tongue at PB. "Please ignore the vampire, Betty." PB said.
"She's Ice King's fiancée according to Marceline." Finn said.
"Ex-Fiancée." I said.
"Oh! So you're the fiancée of the man who kidnaps me! I'm very pleased to meet you." PB said, "Shall we talk somewhere else?"

Finn nodded his head. PB led us to a tea room where we talked. "Simon's been kidnapping you?!" I cried.
"He did that all the time last time! For some reasons, he's attracted to princesses." PB said.
"Before he lost his mind, he calls me his 'princess'."
"That must be the reason for his 'princess-napping' and why did you come?"
"I'm going on a journey to find a loophole and save Simon. I needed some equipment before I embark on my journey."
"Count that on me!"

PB grabbed my wrist and dragged me to her lab. She opened a case and took a gun out of it. Then, she dragged me to her kitchen and grabbed tons of food out of her fridge. "Um... I don't want diabetes." I said.
"Okay!" PB said putting the candy back into her fridge.

She gave the gun to me. She took her wallet out of her lab coat and fished some dollars out of it. She then gave it to me. "Wait here, I have some travelling gear I don't need anymore." PB said.

She ran upstairs, grabbed her travelling gear and gave it to me. She gave me a sleeping bag, hiking bag, a large water bottle, a pencil box filled with pencils and erasers, a few thick notebooks, a gun, a portable stove and some canned bean. "Why are you giving me so much?" I asked the princess.
"I'll help anybody who plans to stop 'princess-napping'!" PB said.

I nodded my head and carried the gears downstairs. I stuffed it into the camping bag which was now very heavy. "I'm going to have big ol' muscles!" I gasped carrying the heavy bag.

PB put a small machine on the bag and it made the bag as light as a feather. "It's a machine I just made. It makes anything that it sticks to as light as a feather." PB explained.
"Thanks!" I thanked her, "I'll be leaving tomorrow."

A frown grew on PB's, Finn's and Marceline's face. PB took a holo-pendant out of her pocket and gave it to me. "Whenever you feel lonely, talk to us." PB said.

I hugged her. I'm going to miss everyone. I wish I could stay sooner... Sadly, I can't. I slept in one of the guest room of Candy Castle and before anyone was awake, I sneaked out and went to Finn's. I grabbed my magic carpet and embarked on my journey.

I'LL SAVE YOU SIMON, JUST WAIT. YOU'RE PRINCESS IS COMING.

TO BE CONTINUED...